The Chance - It Repeats Again
by reminiscent-afterthought
Summary: Once the Brave Snatcher is completed, time will start moving again.


**A/N:** Written for the Advent Calendar Challenge, Day 9 – write a crossover, and for the Groundhog Day Loop Challenge. Crossover explaining notes at the end. :D

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**The Chance – It Repeats Again**

Our time will start running again.

Soon.

_Ryouma wins again. Tagiru kneels over and pants, trying to voice the protests. He's not fast enough. He never is. And he's not strong enough to beat Ryouma either._

_Ryouma takes the Brave Snatcher again. He uses it against Taiki again. Taiki passes his goggles on again. Tagiru tries again._

_He fails to pull the remnants of Bagramon's right arm out of the ocean again._

_He fails again._

_Time restarts._

Soon…

It was a little closer this time.

_They fight for the Brave Snatcher again. Tagiru and Arrestadramon last a little longer. But Ryouma wins again. Tagiru fails to stop him again. Taiki fails again._

_Tagiru, his hands shaking, takes the goggles again. And the Brave Snatcher. And he tries to pull out the remnants of Bagramon's right arm again._

_He fails again._

Soon…

_It repeats again._

_Time rewinds._

Just a little more…

_And it repeats. Again. And again. And again._

_Maybe it takes a little longer each time. Maybe it goes a little differently each time. Tagiru thinks it does. Arrestadramon thinks it does as well._

_There's nothing except the repeated failures to tell him he's only kidding himself._

We…have too…

_Time understands his desperation. Or is punishing him for it. It rewinds._

_He battles Ryouma again. He loses. He tries to warn the Old Clock Man. He tries to warn Taiki. Too late. Ryouma strikes him down._

_He tries to say no to the goggles. But he can't do that. Then there'll be no hope at all._

_He takes them. He takes the Brave Snatcher too. He tries to pull the remnants of Bagramon's arm up._

_He fails._

_Time rewinds again._

How many times has it been now…

_The times blur. But they're repeating. The events are repeating. Him losing to Ryouma. Ryouma striking Taiki. Taiki and Ryouma passing the leadership to him. Him trying, and failing, to complete the Brave Snatcher…_

There has to be something…something I haven't tried…

_He's stopped keeping track, but in one repeat, it works. _

_He still loses to Ryouma. Ryouma still wounds Taiki. Taiki still passes on his goggles. He still can't pull the remnants of Bagramon's right arm from the ocean. The end is still coming._

_But he tries something else this time. Something he hasn't tried before. _

_He's been doing that. Trying different things. In the fight with Ryouma. In struggling to raise Bagramon's arm._

_This time though, it works._

Got it…

_The world vanishes again. But, this time. Time is not rewound. He's not battling Ryouma again. But drifting in a sea of data._

Time's moving…

_…towards the final battleground. Towards DigiQuartz._

It's starting now.

_That final battle. Against Quartzmon._

There's no turning back.

_But as long as the world is held up by that unshakable faith, there'll always be a way to repeat._

_Tagiru moves towards the future. To the final battle. And watching him are the ones holding up the world. The ones who will turn time back if he needs it again. If he fails._

_Because they know, in the end, that he'll succeed._

_That is why they turned the clock back countless times for him._

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**A/N:** The fandom I crossed this over with is Little Busters where Tagiru takes the place of Riki and Rin and The Old Clock Man and everyone making the barrier with him (ie. The old Xros Wars) were maintaining the pocket in time that allowed that little bit of time to continuously rewind. Note that the rewind is limited, because time can only be rewound after the pocket splits off from the rest of the world, ie. after the intent to separate that scene from the rest of time. So when the Old Clock Man and Xros Heart made the choice to separate time, they didn't know Ryouma was possessed by Quartzmon. They were just hoping that the constant rewinding of time would allow whoever held the Brave Snatcher to defeat Quartzmon. It just so happened that in every time line, Tagiru was the last person holding the Brave Snatcher. Egro, he's the one who was constantly sent back in time.


End file.
